Three weeks after Bobby and Eric Andersen finished the lyrics to Part One over a bottle of whiskey, allowing the Dead to complete Wake of the Flood, the band broke out the entire Weather Report Suite live. In their second show after returning to touring, September 8, 1973 at Nassau Coliseum, the band gets their footing during the handpicked opening. For their part, the crowd, judging by the talking and noise, doesn’t appreciate the effort that Bobby had put into this composition; they certainly don’t know that they are listening to what would become one of the Dead’s great vehicles. And while the band seems a little hesitant, the Prelude and Part One are still as resplendent as ever, “like a desert spring.” The transition into Let It Grow is carefully staged, but there is nothing tentative or planned about Jerry’s brilliant solos. He was clearly just waiting to unleash after the first turn in the studio.
At their next show, three days later at William and Mary, Martin Fierro and Joe Ellis, who had played, respectively, sax and trumpet on Wake of the Flood, join the band for the rest of the month. And this takes Weather Report Suite more in the direction of the rich ensemble piece that Bobby had envisioned. Whether you like Fierro and Ellis or not, there is no question that the boys are more comfortable with the opening and transitions to the suite than they had been at Nassau. And if you do enjoy the horns – and Fierro’s flute in parts – this is a phenomenal version. But don’t sleep on the other September ’73 versions with the added personnel: the 15th at the Providence Civic Center, the 17th in Syracuse, the 21st at the Spectrum in Philly, the 24th in Pittsburgh, and the 26th at Buffalo’s War Memorial Auditorium.
Weather Report Suite remained in heavy rotation throughout the rest of the year and right through to the hiatus. And you can bet there were some monumental ones along the way. We are going to highlight two of our favorites, and then leave you with a list of a few of the other well regarded ones.
First up is late in ’73, at Curtis Hixon Convention Hall in Tampa. This was just released as Dave’s Picks Volume 58, but the Charlie Miller soundboard that we have cued up is just as revelatory. One of the beautiful things about the full Weather Report Suite was always the fragile beauty of the Prelude and Part One contrasting with the towering Let It Grow. And the Tampa rendition is the absolute apotheosis of this. After “the quiet part,” as Phil warns the audience, of the early going, the band effortlessly transitions into a scorching Let It Grow. Jerry fires away and the entire band is magically locked in, more evidence of the boys’ powers of psychic communication. And the tune just does not end, reaching feverishly insane territory before finally easing into Dark Star.
As much as we love the Tampa Weather Report, the one at Freedom Hall in Louisville exactly six months later is another banger. But whereas the Tampa one is lean and, until the Let It Grow jams, has a pronounced jazz quintet feel, the Louisville Weather Report Suite is panoramic. Even the early portions are open and ranging, actually embodying the spacious, seasonal landscape. The transition is also looser, losing even more of the orchestral feel of Bobby’s studio vision. The Dead have taken what Bobby gave them and reinvented it together on stage over the previous nine months. And using the full power of the Wall of Sound allows them to deliver the massive grandeur of their new creation. What we get is a Let It Grow that devolves into a lucid soundscape before gathering vague hints of The Other One, which Phil finally bombs right into existence.
Sadly, the Dead shelved the full Weather Report Suite after the hiatus, choosing instead to only play Let It Grow. So, the last version of the full suite that we have is from October 18, 1974, at those final Winterland shows. Bobby later claimed, that he had “always hated” the lyrics to Part One. As he explained, “Those words couldn’t pass my lips without me visibly retching, and I’m not going to do anything that I’m embarrassed about walking into. I do enough stuff that I’m embarrassed about after the fact!…which is why that part of the song vanished for years.”
Some other stellar Weather Report Suites:
- November 11, 1973 – Winterland Arena – San Francisco, CA
- March 23, 1974 – Cow Palace – Daly City, CA
- June 23, 1974 – Jai-Alai Fronton – Miami, FL
- July 19, 1974 – Selland Arena – Fresno, CA
- August 4, 1974 – Philadelphia Civic Center – Philadelphia, PA
- September 11, 1974 – Alexandra Palace – London, England
Got another favorite? Add it to the comments below.
This is the fourth in a four-part series on Weather Report Suite. You can read the first, second, and third installment here.
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